Welcome to Half Baked, the newsletter serving up startup ideas as controversial as McLaren's new logo 🏎️
In today’s edition:
💡 An idea to standardise how young athletes get scouted
⛽️ 500+ Muse prompts, a $1bn spinout that grew revenue 17x + more
🔍 a16z's $42m answer to Stanford, Patrick Collison's advice for your 20s + more
🍻 An idea to make toast break the sound barrier
Let’s goooo 🚀
FYI: We've just opened applications for START, a free 30-day programme that gets you from no idea to a launched business. Playbooks, live sessions, a founder cohort and cash prizes included. The cohort kicks off 5 October and spots are limited. Go go go!
🏅 SATs for Youth Sports
Putting potential to the test.
Name.com Domain: Kickstart.co
👤 Source: HYROX has been in the news over the last few weeks, mainly for this reason. It reminded me of an old Shaan Puri tweet where he shared an idea that could work really well today.
❌ Problem:
Parents spend a small fortune on their kids’ sports. Private coaching. Travel teams. The boots their favourite player wears. But ask whether any of it is making little Johnny a better athlete and the evidence is mostly “his coach says he’s improving”.
Professional sports have a more structured approach. The NFL and NBA host “combines”, where prospects get their height, weight and wingspan measured alongside tests of speed, jumping ability and agility. Think SATs for athletes. Why not do something similar for youth sports? Here’s the idea.
✅ Solution:
Create a business that runs sports testing days for young athletes. Kids rotate through timed sprints, jumps and agility challenges, then leave with a digital scorecard, some swag and a boost to their ego (hopefully).
Start with local clubs and existing tournaments, where families already gather. Test a $79 entry fee, then explore team bookings and seasonal packages. Prove one event works before taking it to another city.
🧑💻 Prototyping: Product Demo
💡 The Half Baked Take: Build an experience kids want to repeat and a scorecard parents find useful, and you’ve got a reason for families to come back every few months.
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💡 Ideas to Inspire You
💻 SaaS: People are building some incredible products with Claude Opus 5.5. Check out this cool Mario Kart copy.
📱 Mobile: 9 "musecases" for Muse's new Instagram access, from turning your saves into scripts to mining your DMs for missed sales. Seriously clever.
🛍️ E-commerce: Nearly half of Gen Z have bought a dupe, and nobody's built the go-to site for comparing them yet. Here's the play.
💵 Side Hustle: One Facebook post with no photos or prices turned into $50k in five months for this guy teaching kids woodwork. The homeschool angle is genius.
⛽️ Fuel for Taking Action
🎓 Founder Tutorial: How to see exactly what your Shopify competitors sell, charge and advertise, for free. Check it out.
💬 AI Prompt: Only scratching the surface with Muse? This library of 500+ prompts unlocks what it can really do. Seriously handy.
📘 Playbook: Your About Us page might be your secret weapon for ranking in AI search. This 8-step playbook shows how to rebuild it. Easy win.
🤑 Money Shot: This Stanford spinout was stuck at a $1B valuation for four years, then grew revenue 17x in twelve months. Here's how.
P.S. Got an idea you're ready to take seriously? Our Founder pack has the deals, playbooks and exclusive content to get you moving, and it's 100% free.
🔍 “Where’s That Shipment?” Shouldn’t Start a Treasure Hunt
A retailer asks for an update. You open three tabs and start searching your inbox.
ShipStation brings LTL tracking, shipment history and milestone updates onto one screen.
Find the update, answer the question and get back to running the business. Your inbox has plenty of other plans for your afternoon.
🔍 Everything Else from Today
📰 Breaking News: Forget Stanford. a16z just unveiled The Horowitz Andreessen Academy and it's backed by $42m and 10 of tech's biggest names. Big swing.
📚 Must-Read: The fastest way to learn a skill that makes you money, and why most people are going about it backwards. Includes a seven-day challenge. Bookmark it.
🎧️ Must-Listen: Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison's best advice for your 20s. Worth 52 seconds of anyone's day.
📺 Must-Watch: Here’s a funny video on the race for AGI. Going viral for good reason.
⭐️ Reader's Pick: Here’s a guide on how to replace your salary by Christmas. Some real gems in this. (Top pick from yesterday’s edition)
🍺 Drunk Business Idea: Jet Toaster
Tired of standing around for three whole minutes waiting on toast? Wish breakfast broke the sound barrier?
Introducing Pop Gun™, the world's first F-14 Tomcat toaster. Twin afterburning jet engines push 28,000lbs of thrust through the bread slots, taking two slices from raw to golden in 2.8 seconds flat. Folding swing wings save counter space. Bolt it to the worktop before use or it'll leave without you.
Pop Gun™ - Cleared for breakfast.
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👋 That’s All Folks
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